


Hiding Place

by MilkTeaMiku



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Keith (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Mates, Omega Lance (Voltron), Omega Verse, Scent Marking, Scenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-06 14:41:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10336848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilkTeaMiku/pseuds/MilkTeaMiku
Summary: Lance is nesting, but his alpha doesn't realise.





	1. One

Lance was an omega. He’d grown up willowy and tall, and his shoulders had broadened over time, but that hadn't changed the softness of his skin or the way his hips rounded with puberty. By the time he presented as an omega, no one was particularly surprised. He took after his omega father quite a bit, now.

As such, he experienced quite a few omega instincts, too – and unfortunately, not even Voltron could put a stop to them. He hadn’t had suppressants on him when he’d been whisked away with Blue, or any scent-dampening products. None of them had. Everyone on Team Voltron had presented, even Pidge, who was a year younger than most of them. On a ship with two betas and two alphas, Lance was most certainly outnumbered.

Sometimes, betas and alphas didn’t quite understand an omega’s urges, especially not an omega who was approaching their heat. Things like safe, clean spaces became incredibly important. If Lance was going to spend his heat on the ship, then he had to feel safe, and he had to be somewhere clean, and no one could interrupt him.

That’s where the nesting part came in. Most omegas experienced nesting urges, to some degree. Lance was no exception. An omega nested before their body underwent changes, particularly hormonal ones. Heats and pregnancies were perfect and common examples of when an omega nested. Whenever Lance had had his heats without suppressants stopping them, he’d always built a nest. He wasn’t particularly surprised that he was experiencing such urges again, even though he was in space.

His alpha, however, was rather confused.

It had been a surprise to everyone, Lance included, that he’d paired up with Keith. They argued a lot, and were constantly bickering, but somehow they worked. Most of the time Keith tried really hard to be a good alpha, and Lance certainly appreciated his efforts. That didn’t change the fact that Keith had spent ages away from society in some desert shack, so he was still a little inexperienced when it came to dynamics other than his own.

Namely, he didn’t understand nesting.

It started with cleaning. Lance knew when to look out for the signs of his impending heat, and cleaning was certainly one of them. First it was just his own room, and then it was Keith’s. They often slept in the same room together, but while he could get away with obsessively cleaning his own, he couldn’t get away with cleaning Keith’s.

“Lance, what are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” Lance said. “I’m cleaning.”

“In the cupboard?”

“In the cupboard.”

Each of the rooms that the Paladins had were pretty simple. There was a single bed notched into the wall, with cupboards above and below it. A desk and chair sat across the room, and there were hooks on the wall for their jackets. There was a sealed cupboard that had their Voltron uniforms too.

Currently, Lance had pulled apart the cupboards beneath the bed so that he could crawl into them. All of their contents – mostly Keith’s clothes, the odd practice knife and random trinkets he’d found around the castle – were spread out on the floor, but it was organised, and Lance couldn’t help but glare when Keith nudged aside items with his foot.

“I think you’ve just made a bigger mess,” Keith muttered.

Lance huffed, suddenly irritated. He shoved his head back in the cupboard and started scrubbing vigorously again. He had to get the entire room clean, didn’t Keith understand that? Every single inch had to be dirt-free. “If you didn’t keep your room so messy then maybe I wouldn’t need to clean so much of it,” he growled.

“What the hell, Lance? It’s not even that messy.”

The thing was, it _was_ messy, and Lance couldn’t stand it. He threw the rag he’d been using to clean over his shoulder at Keith, and stubbornly remained quiet. He wanted to clean up, so he was going to clean up.

“Alright, I think that’s enough,” Keith sighed. He crouched down behind Lance, and put his hands on Lance’s hips. In one smooth motion, he’d pulled Lance out of the cupboard, and set him on his feet. Sometimes that inherent alpha strength really pissed Lance off. “If you’re bored, just go train or something. I have to put everything back now.”

“You can’t put it _back,_ you’ll mess it up,” Lance snapped, as he reached for a towel on the floor. “You didn’t even put this in the laundry chute.”

Keith took the towel from him, and tossed it aside. Seeing it lay crumpled on the bed, a bed _Lance slept in,_ made something hideous coil in his stomach. “Just go, Lance,” Keith said, as he placed his hand on the back of Lance’s shoulder to lead him to the door. “Go occupy yourself somewhere else.”

The door slid shut with a hiss behind him. Suddenly booted from the room, Lance found himself feeling oddly… vulnerable. He wrapped his arms around his own waist, sent a last, withering glare at Keith’s room, and stormed away. He still ached to clean the room from top to bottom, but a more pressing thought was starting to twitch in his mind.

If he couldn’t nest in Keith’s room, then he’d have to find somewhere else.

 

The dining room was his next target. Shiro, Allura, Coran and Hunk came in to eat breakfast while Lance was busy, but he was too concerned with cleaning to ask them to leave. Shiro and Hunk seemed to sense that something was up with him, so they didn’t question him as he furiously scrubbed at the table top. 

Allura and Coran, without dynamics of their own, seemed a little… concerned, but Lance put it out of his mind. “Is he alright?” Allura whispered, as she leaned over towards Shiro. “I’ve never seen him… clean so much.”

“Just let him be,” Shiro whispered back, as he watched Hunk lift his plate out of Lance’s way. “Something must have ruffled him.”

“Will he be alright?”

“Yeah, he’ll work it out of his system. Omegas are incredibly resilient.”

Lance didn’t think he was particularly resilient at all, but he was glad Shiro wasn’t disrupting him. Out in space, it had been hard for them to find a dynamic that worked. An omega, two alphas and two betas usually didn’t make up a pack, but Shiro had taken control of them, and somehow he made it work. Out of them all, Shiro was the one most in tune with their instincts as a pack dynamic rather than as a set of individuals. Maybe he could sense that Lance was restless. 

“Do you want any help, Lance?” Coran asked, as he dutifully lifted his plate so Lance could scrub beneath it. “If you need anything, just ask me. Good old Coran will be right on it!”

At first, Allura and Coran had been a little off-putting, despite Lance’s attraction to Allura’s looks. They didn’t have secondary genders like people from Earth did, and so they didn’t particularly smell like… anything. It was quite a shock, but once Lance had come to trust them, he found that their lack of scent was quite reassuring.

On some deep, instinctual level, he believed that their no-scent meant they didn’t have any ulterior motives. 

“Thanks Coran,” he said, “I’ll be alright.”

He really appreciated Coran’s offer. Coran was the oldest of them all, and he never failed to comfort Lance if he needed it. In Coran, he’d found someone who was just as homesick, if not more, than himself. That’s why he appreciated the attention he got from Coran.

He left the dining room before either Keith or Pidge showed up. He didn’t really want to see Keith, anyway. 

While the others finished eating, he cleaned the kitchen. Neither Coran nor Hunk were particularly good at keeping things clean while they cooked, but they weren’t too messy. He only needed to set aside the cleaning utensils and wipe down the benches a few times before he was satisfied. 

He wondered where he could nest, if not in Keith’s room. There were hundreds of little nooks and crannies in the castle where no one would think to look, but it certainly got him thinking. His nest needed to be somewhere that no one would be able to find, because he’d be unable to defend himself in his heat. Without his alpha around, he’d need somewhere secure and safe, somewhere no one would find.

If everyone was eating… then he had heaps of time to search for a place! Perfect. 

There were quite a few utility closets on the castle that held spare bedsheets and blankets. Lance raided one on his way, gathering as many soft things into his arms as he could. Without a mattress it would be hard to build the foundation of his nest, but this would have to do.

He stopped off in the hangars first, though. He still worried about his relationship with Blue, mostly because it didn’t seem as strong as it should be. After dumping his armful of blankets at the hanger bay doors, he approached his lion.

“Hey Blue,” he said. He put his hands against Blue’s paw; it was the only part of his lion that he could reach. “I won’t be able to come visit you for a while. Sucks, huh? You’ll be lonely without me, won’t you?”

Like usual, there was no response from Blue. He’d only ever really had Blue respond to him in battle, and sometimes that was discouraging. He wanted a strong bond with Blue, because if they had a strong bond, then he couldn’t be replaced. 

Lance sighed, and pressed his forehead against Blue’s paw. It was cold beneath his skin. “Sorry, Blue,” he whispered. “Can’t exactly help my biology. Let’s hope you don’t need me until it’s all over, yeah?”

Blue was silent, but there was a sort of cold thrum that went through him, as though someone had pulled tight a string that he hadn’t noticed was there. It was reassuring, in some weird, unnatural way. Lance had no doubt that it was his connection to Blue. At least he had his Lion looking out for him, even if it wasn’t in the same forward way the other Lions looked out for their individual Paladins. To him, something even as small as that thread was better than nothing at all.

He gathered his blankets on the way out, and wondered where exactly he should go to find his perfect nesting spot. Anything on the same side of the castle as the dorms was a clear no-go, and he wanted to avoid the dining room, common room and training deck. He couldn’t nest in the hangers or near the lions, either. That really only left the uppermost levels on the far side of the ship, or down in the very lowest level where it was dark and scary and therefore not a place he wanted to go. 

So the upper levels were his prime choice. None of the Paladins really strayed there because it was out of the way and populated mostly by generators and things like supply closets. Everything they needed was near the common room and the bedrooms, so why bother going so far out of their way for nothing? Sure, they’d explored the castle, but that didn’t mean they lived in every inch of it. 

It was in the furthest room away from the bedrooms that Lance finally found a place to settle. He’d taken the elevator up as far as it would go without Allura’s level of clearance (or some weird Altean-written password, anyway) and wandered around until he’d found a room with a lockable door. It wasn’t particularly clean inside, but there was a wide, closet-like room that he could stretch in without touching the sides. It would be perfect to build his nest in.

So that’s what he did. He cleaned it out first, obsessively wiping down walls and sweeping the floor with a broom he found in one of the supply closets. Only when it was dust free and normal-smelling did he start to assemble his nest. It would be hard to make the floor comfortable without a mattress, and he lamented not dragging one out of the bedrooms. 

In fact, not being in his bedroom or his mate’s bedroom was just awful. He didn’t feel completely safe here, not like he would have if Keith had let him stay. This would have to do, and it was with a miserable huff that he collapsed against his work-in-progress nest. He’d need more blankets and more pillows and more soft things, and food would definitely propose a problem, but at least he had a space to himself. 

It was a start.

 

Sneaking around the castle was not as easy as he’d thought it would be. For the most part, he stocked up his nest with blankets and towels from the supply closets on the upper levels. They all needed to be turned inside out, because he didn’t know when they’d last been cleaned, but their scent was neutral enough for him to grow accustomed to. He found curtains in one room as well, and used them to line the bottom of his nest so that the cold of the floor no longer seeped through.

Oddly enough, there was a smaller training deck on the upper levels, too. Well, he thought it was a training deck. It might have been a meditation room, or something. The Alteans were all spiritual like that, weren’t they? He didn’t know, and to be honest, he didn’t really care either. Nest building first, unravelling the mysteries of the Alteans second. 

Still, whatever the room was, it was equipped with provisions just like the training deck on the lower levels. When Lance managed to find the little incubator thing where packets of water and these weird energy bars were kept, he took the entire stock with him back to his nest. It was a little pull-out drawer, so when he pushed it back in it looked like no one had messed with it, and that pleased some secretive, instinctual part of him.

If his alpha wasn’t going to spend his heat with him, then he’d have to hide his nest and himself from _everyone._ Alpha included. 

The supplies he’d stolen from the meditation room would only last him a day, at most. He’d already been hiding away for hours, and he completely drained one of the water packets before he could stop himself. He wasn’t used to rationing when nesting, and he didn’t have much faith in his abilities. He didn’t know if he’d have enough presence of mind to take care of himself.

Anytime he’d had a heat, he’d always been supervised. At the Garrison, it had been by the beta nurse. Each omega was offered a heat room, and the nurse would come in every two hours or so to check on them, and make sure the omega was drinking and eating. She’d been a very kind beta, Lance remembered, with the softest, least intrusive scent he’d ever smelt. His body always became used to calming down when she came. 

When he’d had his heats at home – and there had only been two or three of those – it was his Ma that came to help him. She was a beta too, and there was nothing more reassuring that his mother gently brushing his hair away from his forehead. One time his Ma had been out, and it had been his older, alpha sister that came to check on him. He’d been frightened by her scent at first, but even she was nothing less than kind and caring. It had always been drilled into him that no matter what, he’d always have someone to watch out for him when he was at his most vulnerable.

In that sense, he was a very lucky omega.

Not so much this time round, though. He’d thought he’d finally get to spend a heat with Keith, with his alpha, but maybe not. Maybe Keith just wasn’t ready – Lance wouldn’t blame him if that was the case. He didn’t know if he was ready to take a knot either, no matter how much his body begged for one when his heat truly hit. He would have been satisfied with Keith’s company (and maybe a helping hand) if Keith could manage. If not, that would have been fine too, as long as Keith made sure he didn’t dehydrate or starve. That was what an alpha was meant to do for their omega. 

He’d have to manage on his own. He didn’t want to admit it, but it was a little scary. His heats had always been very intense, and while he’d hoped they’d settle as he grew older, they hadn’t. He used to wish that he’d find an alpha sooner, knowing that heats spent with an alpha he trusted would be easier and safer. Maybe it was time for him to grow up and deal with them on his own.

 

“Shiro, have you seen Lance lately? He didn’t show up for lunch.”

A frown touched Shiro’s face as he glanced up. “No, I thought he was with you. You weren’t at lunch either.”

Keith winced. “I was looking for him.”

It wasn’t like he’d meant to yell at Lance, it had just… happened. Lance had been acting really strange lately, and Keith had no way idea why. He probably had the most difficult omega to deal with in the entire galaxy, and half the time he wondered why he even put up with Lance’s awful attitude. Of course, it always became clear to him immediately after he thought that – he loved Lance, shitty jokes and all. Thinking otherwise just made him feel guilty.

Which was how he was starting to feel then.

“Do you think he’s been… a little weird, lately?” Keith asked. Surely Shiro would notice if something was up with Lance – he was their pack alpha, their leader. If anyone could be able to affirm Keith’s concerns, it would be Shiro.

Shiro sighed, and turned away from the gadget he’d been tinkering with. “Have you been keeping track of his heats?”

Keith flushed, and let out a choked noise. “What?”

“You’re in the process of claiming him, right?” Shiro asked.

Keith nodded. He’d marked Lance, but it was only a temporary bond, one that had to be cemented with sex. Neither one of them were really ready for that, but that didn’t mean the mark on Lance’s neck was any less valid. 

“Then it’s your job to keep track of his heats,” Shiro said. “As an alpha, he trusts you to watch out for signs of an early heat or any complications that might arise. Have you at least spoken to him about them?”

“No,” Keith shook his head. “It hasn’t come up.”

Shiro sighed again. He drummed his fingers against the desktop for a moment. “I think Lance has started nesting,” he said slowly. 

_“Nesting?”_ Keith said, incredulous. “How can he be nesting?”

“If his heat is coming up, then it’s likely he will try to build a nest in either one of your rooms,” Shiro said. “Omegas get very finicky when their heats are approaching, and they often obsessively clean or rearrange the places they’re considering for the nest. Lance was very distracted at breakfast this morning, and he was cleaning quite avidly…”

Something heavy dropped in Keith’s stomach. Lance _had_ been obsessively cleaning his room that morning, and Keith had gotten mad at him for it. He knew that alphas weren’t meant to interfere with their omega’s nesting because somehow that conveyed rejection to an omega, and he certainly wasn’t rejecting Lance! He would never do that.

“He was trying to clean my room earlier,” he said. “But I made him stop.”

“Oh.” It was a disappointed noise, one Shiro made without looking Keith in the eye. As the pack alpha, Keith felt the effect of the chastising without Shiro needing to verbalise it explicitly. “Then I think we have a problem, because no one has seen Lance all day.”


	2. Two

The longer Lance spent in his nest, the less he hated it. He’d rearranged the blankets and pillows he had at least a dozen times trying to find the best configuration for comfort, but he thought he’d need more soft things first. He wasn’t sure, however, if he could risk leaving his nest now. Omegas were always reluctant to leave once the nest had been started, especially if they were without an alpha to watch out for them. It wasn’t like Lance distrusted the other people on this ship, but…

Well, he probably wouldn’t be leaving his nest anytime soon. 

His heat was always something he felt complicated towards. On one hand, he wanted to dislike it – it was sticky, painful, uncomfortable and very often prolonged beyond the usual for omegas. On the other hand, he wanted to own it as a part of himself, wanted to luxuriate in the comfort of his body restarting its quarterly cycle anew. It was hard to decide which feeling he had towards it was the strongest.

He wondered how strong this heat would be. He could feel it beginning to rise, like a fluttering sensation in the pit of his stomach. It wouldn’t hit properly for a few hours, maybe a day or two, not until his body was completely ready for it – that was what the nesting period was for. It was like… a pre-heat. That was probably the technical term for it, though Lance preferred to just call it the pre-nightmare. 

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since he’d haphazardly built his nest, but eventually he started to hear noise close by. There were rushing footsteps echoing from the floor below him, and although the sealed closet and the adjoining room’s closed door would hide most of his scent, he still found himself holding his breath and consciously trying to reel it in.

If an alpha found his nest… he didn’t know what he’d do. All of his instincts were rising, making him feel like he’d chosen an unsuitable place to have his heat. If someone stumbled across his nest, he’d have to either defend it, or move it somewhere even more risky than this place, which were two things he really didn’t want to do. It would be way too dangerous.

But the footsteps passed, and very slowly, he relaxed. No one would expect he’d come up this high up in the castle, after all. That’s why he’d chosen this spot. Maybe it would work out in the end. 

It took a while for his soured scent to completely disappear. He’d almost forgotten how potent his own scent became when he was in heat. It was strong enough that he could clearly smell it, and the tang of anxiousness was never pleasant. He only needed soft scents in his nest, because anything bad could send him into a panicked, downwards spiral that he really didn’t want to go into. Heats were too vulnerable and fragile for that.

Lance let out an uncomfortable sigh, and rolled away from the door. His temperature was starting to rise, and his clothes felt confining, but he couldn’t bring himself to strip down. Especially not now that someone had come a floor away from his nest. Maybe he should risk going out to find more padding; it might help to muffle his scent even more. But he really didn’t want to leave his nest now, no matter how prissy that made him seem. 

He’d just have to tough it out.

 

“I can’t _find_ him,” Keith snapped, as Shiro tried to placate him. “He’s not in our rooms, he’s not in the hangers with Blue, he’s not with Red, he’s not even in Allura’s room!”

“You went into my room?” Allura frowned. 

Keith bared his teeth, aggravated. It didn’t matter whose room he had to raid, he would find _his_ omega. Allura – a person with no dynamic – had no grounds to stop him. 

“Keith, calm down,” Shiro said, his voice firm. He was their pack alpha, the one they were meant to listen to, but he wasn’t _Lance’s_ alpha. He didn’t suffer the same frantic instincts that Keith did, knowing that he could have potentially rejected his mate with his stupid actions. He had to find his omega, and he had to protect him. It was his job as an alpha to watch over Lance when he was vulnerable, but he couldn’t do that if Lance was _nowhere to be found._

“Lance hasn’t left the castle,” Allura said, as she noticed the tension between the two alphas rising. “There’s no way for him to – no pods are missing, and his Lion is here. He has to be on board somewhere. It’s only a matter of time before he’s found.”

Shiro sighed. “Even if that’s the case, we still have a problem,” he said. “If Lance is already in heat, we can’t interrupt his nesting space. It could be detrimental to his health – even more so if someone other than Keith comes across him first.”

Allura frowned again. “I’m not sure I understand,” she said.

“Omegas build nests for when they go into heat,” Shiro explained. “The nests are for comfort and security, and are very important to an omega. If someone comes across it or disturbs it before it’s complete, they’ll dismantle the whole thing and try to build it in a riskier spot, and depending how far into their heat they are, that can be a very dangerous thing.”

“That doesn’t sound promising.”

“Lance shouldn’t be far into his heat,” Shiro said, “but we’re running out of time. I want to at least find him, because I know he’s not going to have enough provisions to get himself through his heat.”

“He won’t,” Hunk agreed. Hunk had been silent for the most part, but at that he perked up. “His heats are really bad. The nurse at school had to check on him every two hours just to make sure he didn’t burn up.”

Keith’s stomach felt like his stomach would plummet through his feet at any moment. If Lance’s heats were bad, he _definitely_ had to be there. “If he’s not completely in heat, can I enter his nest?” He asked. “I don’t want him to think I’m rejecting him.”

“I know,” Shiro assured him, “but he might not let you in there. Keith, even if you have to take care of him, if he doesn’t want you there, you can’t go in.”

Keith didn’t reply. He already knew that, but he didn’t know what he’d do if Lance turned him away. He’d drive himself crazy with worry for the entire duration of Lance’s heat. There was no nurse to take care of him now. Would he even be able to stand Lance’s heat-scent? He didn’t know.

“First things first, we need to find him,” Shiro said. “We’ve searched the bedrooms, the common rooms and the hangers. I want everyone to split up and comb through different levels of the castle. Hunk, you know Lance the best – can you prepare provisions for him that he’ll be able to stomach?”

“I can.”

“Then do that, please. Coran, do you think you can find a bunch of those water packets? Lance will need them, and we don’t have bottles.”

“Roger that!”

The rest of the team would search the remaining levels. Keith had already gone pretty high up in the castle, further than they’d explored before, but he hadn’t even caught a whiff of his mate’s scent. He didn’t think Lance’s scent had ever been so hard to find before, but he knew that Lance had probably made a conscious effort to hide it while he looked for a good place to nest.

Keith headed back up to the upper levels. Lance could have been anywhere in the castle, but something told Keith that he would have gone up rather than down. Allura had said there were teaching and study rooms on the upper levels, and some had closets wide enough and long enough to comfortably fit several sleeping people. It was reasonable to think that Lance might have come across one of them. That, or he’d found a vacant bedroom somewhere and built a nest there.

He didn’t know how long he was searching for before he finally caught a faint trail of Lance’s scent. It was certainly a heat-scent, but it wasn’t full blown, and not enough to muddle his mind. But a spark of energy went through him at the taste of it on his tongue, and he couldn’t help but break into a job to follow it. The scent led him up another floor, one higher than he’d explored earlier that day, but it was an expansive place, and trying to follow such a weak scent was difficult.

Too many minutes passed before he found himself panting, out of breath, in front of a door. Lance’s scent was the strongest here. Keith let out an inquiring rumble, one Lance would usually answer, but he only received silence in return. When he pushed the door open to reveal a large room, Lance’s scent swelled and became much stronger. He glanced suspiciously around the still room until he noticed a closed door.

_Ah. There you are._

He crept closer to the door, but was suddenly interrupted by a feral snarl. It startled him so badly that he took a step back, his arm raised. Lance had _never_ made that sort of noise before, especially not to him. Sure, they fought and bickered all the time, but that was a clear warning to stay away. 

But he couldn’t do that.

Keith let out a low rumble, one that reverberated through his chest. It was a neutral sound, one that he knew was designed to sound safe and calm. He edged closer when there was no reply, but then Lance let out a hiss, so he stopped. His mind raced as he reluctantly stepped back, knowing he’d be unable to convince his mate to let him in that easy. 

_That easy…_

He frowned as a thought struck him. Lance was his mate, and Keith had spent hours watching him and his strange quirks. He thought he knew Lance’s instincts better than anyone, and when combined with his general personality, there must be a sure-fire way to please him. When he thought that, it hit him. He just had to make Lance happy.

And sure, it kind of seemed like bribing, but if he could show that he was an attentive alpha, than Lance would at least let him hover close by when he was in heat. 

With that thought in mind, he shut the door to the room Lance had found a place to nest in and raced back down to their rooms. He needed to find things that Lance could use in his nest – soft things, things that carried their scents well. He knew omegas liked that, and his omega certainly had a taste for luxurious things. 

He raided Lance’s bedroom first. The bedsheets smelt like him, and would hopefully be comforting. He took Lance’s pillows as well, before going to his own room just down the hall. Maybe it was a little overzealous of him, but he wanted Lance to have stuff with his own scent on it, too. He took his own blanket and after a moment of hesitation, he snuck his red jacket into the middle of the pile. That might have been too much, but he was always the type to push his luck when it came to Lance.

He was in the midst of carrying it all back up to Lance when he heard someone call his name.

“Keith!” Shiro said, sounding surprised. “Did you find him?”

Unbidden, Keith let out a snarl. Rationally he knew that Shiro wouldn’t go after Lance (in fact, he thought Shiro had more of an interest in Allura than in Keith’s omega), but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a rival alpha. Lance was _his_ omega, and he was going to keep it that way. 

Shiro raised his hands, but his eyes were flashing. He might interpret Keith’s warning growls as a challenge to his status as pack alpha, but he seemed to know that wasn’t the case. “So you’ve found him.” Shiro kept his voice low and even, and it made Keith feel less defensive. “Alright, that’s good. Just remember what we talked about, alright? Don’t push him.”

“I know,” Keith said. His own voice sounded rough, but it wasn’t exactly unexpected, not with all the rumbling he’d been doing. 

“Hunk is almost done with making provisions,” Shiro said. “I’ll have him bring them up when they’re done. Meet him halfway.”

Keith nodded, and after making sure Shiro wasn’t going to follow him (not that he had any reason to) he turned back towards the elevators. When he finally got back to Lance’s room he was greeted by another warning growl, but that didn’t stop him. He had to see if Lance would accept when he was offering.

He let out a low noise as he crouched in front of the door. He could smell Lance strongly from this close – especially his weariness. Carefully, Keith reached for the door handle, and slowly slid it open. Lance let out another warning hiss, but it abruptly cut off when Keith edged all the fabrics in through the gap. When they weren’t immediately rejected, Keith let out a sigh of relief, and shut the door again. He wanted to be impatient, but he had to take this one step at a time.

Only when he started to hear shuffling noises from inside the nest did he back away. Hunk would be up any moment with food and water for Lance, and he had to make sure Hunk didn’t get a read on where Lance’s nest was. One person knowing was probably enough for Lance.

He met Hunk at the end of the hallway, and took the box of food from him with a forced, but thankful smile. Hunk was a beta, and his scent had never been intrusive, but Keith was envious of the bond he had with Lance. They knew each other the best out of all of them, and Hunk was well aware of how Lance’s heats were. He’d probably comforted Lance during his pre-heats before, and Lance trusted him explicitly. That was something Keith was definitely jealous of.

“Keith,” Hunk said, before Keith could turn away, “his heats are really bad. You have to set boundaries before he can’t think straight, or else you’ll both do something you regret.”

The alpha in him didn’t like being told what to do with his omega, but Keith trusted Hunk too, so he forced down his offended growls and nodded. “Is this enough for him?” He asked, gesturing to the box.

“More than enough,” Hunk said. “Make sure he drinks a lot. He… he gets overwhelmed by his heats sometimes, so you just have to stay calm. He won’t try and hurt himself or anything, but…”

Keith understood what Hunk was getting at, so he nodded. “I’ll keep him safe,” he said. He believed in that completely.

 

Lance pressed his face into Keith’s blanket and breathed in deeply. The extra pillows and sheets were perfect for his nest, and made his space twice as comfortable. He hadn’t even needed to leave his nest to find them; his alpha had brought them for him.

He couldn’t bring himself to really drive Keith away. If he’d wanted to, he could have, he was sure of that. His threatening hisses would send Keith away if he insisted with them. But he didn’t, and so Keith was staying close by. He hadn’t expected Keith to try and placate him by adding to his nest, but it had worked. 

He’d always known that there would be rocky parts in their relationship. Lance expected a lot, and Keith didn’t know _what_ to expect. Sometimes they would misunderstand each other, and they’d clash. It was the exact same as their everyday interactions – a push and pull, not a smooth flow. Lance had learned that if he was quick to forgive Keith, then everything would be fine. He knew it was partly his fault for not telling Keith he was going into heat, but it was Keith’s fault too, for not noticing. In the end, he thought neither one of them were to blame.

Besides, Keith was trying to be a good alpha. He’d chased away anyone who strayed too close to the nest, and brought Lance more fabrics heavy with their scents. He’d even found Keith’s jacket stuffed in the pile, which he’d draped over his bare torso. He’d taken everything but his boxers off an hour or so ago, so the jacket was a welcomed comfort. God, he could already imagine Keith’s face when he came into the nest and saw Lance cuddling with his jacket.

_He’ll come in, right?_

It was a strange thought that struck him. He wasn’t ready to actually spend a heat with an alpha, but he wanted Keith with him. Was that selfish of him? It would be hard for Keith to keep his cool if Lance was in heat. Everyone knew that Keith could be a little hot headed. Was it right for Lance to ask Keith to ignore his instincts just so he wouldn’t be alone?

But Keith wouldn’t want to stay out of the nest, Lance already knew that. It was obvious from Keith’s hovering. 

Soon after the blankets had been pushed into his room, Keith returned, and opened the door again. Lance didn’t hiss at him this time, and curiously lifted his head to look at the box Keith was giving him. It was packed full of water packets and food, and smelt very faintly of Hunk. Not only was his alpha giving him nesting materials, but now he was providing food, too. He really was trying to be the best alpha he could be.

It made him feel cared for. Maybe other omegas would see it as a bribe, but Lance knew Keith better than that. He let out a pleased noise and got a satisfied rumble from Keith in return. Lance’s positive response was clearly an invitation in, but Keith had always been a little dense, so he didn’t join Lance. He didn’t particularly mind – Keith would get the memo eventually. 

For now, he closed his eyes and let himself relax into his nest. It seemed like things were finally going right. 

 

He dozed for a little while. It was only a light sleep, so when the door was slowly pushed open, he woke. He let out a curious whine, and the door stopped. He could smell that it was Keith so he wasn’t particularly worried. His body was starting to feel hotter, and his scent had gotten stronger. That was probably what had enticed Keith closer.

Lance rolled over, and stretched out. He really would have preferred to nest in one of their rooms, but this place wasn’t so bad. He had enough fabrics now, and heaps of food. He just needed his mate to get a move on.

Keith rumbled at him, testing his boundaries. Lance didn’t reply, so Keith inched in, pushing the door open wider. Lance had his back turned to Keith, but he could smell Keith’s sudden interest. The jacket thing always worked with alphas. 

Slowly, Keith inched closer. He shut the door behind him, and then a moment later his weight was pressing down on the nest. Lance had built it with enough space for Keith, so he was rather glad to see that his mate was taking advantage of that. Keith’s extra body heat was welcome, even if Lance was already uncomfortably hot.

It was a careful process, but eventually Keith had himself pressed against Lance’s back. His hand was gripping Lance’s waist, pinning his jacket over Lance’s bare skin like it would help him restrain himself. His nose was pressed right up against the back of Lance’s neck, and he could feel Keith’s breath against his skin. His alpha’s attention made him shiver.

“Are you feeling alright?” Keith asked. His voice was rough and gravelly, and Lance really shouldn’t have found it as attractive as he did. 

“It’s hot,” he said. He sounded airy to his own ears, but it wasn’t unpleasant. 

Keith hummed. His hand crept around to press against Lance’s stomach, which made him preen. They both knew what heats were for, though that certainly wouldn’t happen this time, or any time in the next few years. Keith’s hand eventually moved so that he could tuck his jacket tighter around Lance. “I think it’s meant to be hot,” he said.

“Is that a joke, mullet?” Lance teased.

Keith huffed, but he didn’t sound put off. “I’m sorry,” he said. “For before. I should have noticed.” 

Lance shook his head. “I should have said something.”

Keith sighed. His fingers were idly tracing patterns over Lance’s stomach now. “It’s my job to watch out for you, and I didn’t. As an alpha, I let you down.”

Lance shook his head again. “You always try really hard to please me,” he said quietly. “I do notice when you do nice things for me, even if I’m not always grateful. I can’t ask for more.”

Keith rumbled – it was a deep, surprised sound, but a good one. He pulled Lance closer by the hips and nuzzled against the back of his neck. “My pretty omega,” he mumbled. 

This time, Lance did preen. He couldn’t help it, he was a sucker for compliments. Even better if Keith was giving them. He wasn’t a very lovey-dovey type of guy, so when he was in an affectionate mood, Lance was sure to take advantage of it. 

For a while, they just laid there. Lance was more than happy to simply rest and purr as his worries eased away. Keith would take care of him now that he was here. It was nice to have an alpha’s scent so close, to have _his_ alpha close. Keith’s scent was starting to cling to his skin, and even if it did make his heat come faster, he was grateful for it. If Keith really had rejected him he didn’t know what he would have done. 

Eventually, Keith sighed again. “We have to talk about your heat before it hits,” he said. “I can smell it coming.”

“You can?” Lance didn’t think it would be that strong already.

Keith hummed. “What do you want to do? I’m not going to do anything you don’t want to. I can control myself.”

“Can you?” Lance asked, unsure. “My scent will…”

“I know, it’ll get stronger.” Keith shook his head. “I know I can control myself. I don’t want to mess up just because my dick wants action. If you just want me to watch over you, I can do that. You just need to tell me very clearly what you want.”

“If I did want action, would you do that?” Lance asked.

Keith twitched at the question, and let out a deep breath. He restlessly shifted his hips. “Is that a question you really need to ask?”

Lance flushed. “Just checking.”

“Is that what you want?”

“No,” he admitted. “But I’m not opposed to… everything.”

Keith hummed again, but it sounded a lot more suggestive this time. His scent was starting to become stronger too, though he didn’t seem to notice that himself. “Then you wouldn’t mind me staying?”

Lance shook his head. “No penetration,” he said, red cheeked. 

Keith nodded. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. He pressed his nose against the back of Lance’s neck, and teasingly stuck out his tongue to lick a small line across his skin. It made Lance’s breath catch in his throat, and his back arch. “Can I use my hands?” He asked, voice low and sultry. 

“Yes,” Lance said. He could feel that his face was red. His ears were probably the same, too. His heart was racing so hard that he feared Keith would be able to hear it.

Keith nuzzled against his neck again. There were scent glances not too far away from his nose, and his attention was making them swell. “Can I use my fingers?” He asked.

Lance shivered, and tilted his head forwards, letting Keith explore more of his skin. It was more than enough of an answer for Keith, who pressed even closer to suck a mark into his neck. 

Keith let out a wet breath, and licked over the bruise he’d left. “Then, can I use my mouth, too?”

A whimper left Lance. Just thinking about Keith putting his mouth on him, on not just his lips, made him shake. He was nodding without realising, and only stopped when Keith reached forwards to turn his face in to a kiss. 

“You’re trembling,” Keith murmured against his lips. “Are you scared?”

“A little,” Lance admitted breathlessly, “but that’s not why.” 

Keith smirked. “Good.”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Lance asked. “I don’t… I’m not ready for…”

“I’ll be alright,” Keith said, his voice firm and steady. There was no room for arguments; he was completely sure of himself, and it left Lance feeling very comforted. “I’ll take care of you, Lance. It’s what I’m meant to do as an alpha. I _want_ to do it.”

Lance bit his lip. His stomach was coiling at the implications of Keith’s words, and it was making him light headed. God, since when had Keith had it in him to speak like that? Lance liked it. Probably a bit too much.

“Stop panicking,” Keith whispered. “I can smell your heat coming, so you should relax. I’m going to help you, Lance. You don’t need to worry about anything.”

It was incredibly romantic, Lance thought. He didn’t expect that sort of affection to come from Keith, but he certainly did like it. It felt good to have his alpha fuss over him. Especially since that alpha was Keith. 

When he was sure Lance was calm again, Keith settled. He put his arm under Lance’s head and kept the other wound tight around his waist, almost like he was afraid Lance would suddenly leave. He was controlling his scent now, making sure it wasn’t overwhelming or suffocating, and Lance appreciated that. Keith really did try his best to be the alpha Lance needed, and more often than not, he didn’t fall short.

Maybe this heat wouldn’t be so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do take requests for A/B/O fics, but they take me a bit to work through, just because they always end up so long ^^"
> 
> [my tumblr](http://milkteamiku.tumblr.com/)   
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